Kara woke up feeling a lack of warmth between her arms. Eyes opening, she checked the bed for Kori, then she heard her lover in the kitchen and laid her head back on the pillow, releasing a long breath, a silly smile on her face.
Despite the drawn-out fight she had just been in, Kara felt utterly satisfied, all the stress of the planning and subsequent battle gone. She didn't even care about the backlash from her actions or the involvement of a Demon in the assault.
Yeah, she was sure she would meet Neron again, probably under even less pleasant circumstances. Kal would also want to have a talk again, and there were now two villains inside her base —Which were two people too many for her liking, even if they were neutralized— but, for the moment, she just felt… relaxed.
Regardless of what the future may hold, she had fulfilled her promise to Selina and dealt a strong blow against The Light, probably disrupting a significant number of their plans for a long time.
With Klarion still hurt, Lex busy with a PR crisis and their scapegoat group dealt with in such a permanent manner, she doubted they had half as much control over the underworld as they did in the original show.
Perhaps she should press her advantage, but she couldn't just go and punch the rest of her enemies, either because she didn't know where to find them or because it would cause an international incident to do so.
Also, a cornered animal always fought harder and, with how amoral some of her enemies could be, Kara really didn't want to see how far they could go.
There were things worse than Klarion Savage could contact if he felt pressed.
No, this last action had bought her time. Time to plan, develop, finally finish healing and fully establish herself on Earth. Her company was also just taking off and she was almost ready to move into the new house.
Hmmmm, thinking about it, perhaps she could lay low for a few days, sleep late and work from home. It would allow things to quiet down, give her time to rest and, to be perfectly honest, all this effort had left her mentally exhausted.
Kara may be able to enjoy going out sometimes, and she had a blast messing with people, but the truth was she was an introvert. She needed to recharge, spend a few days quietly working on her projects and away from too many people.
Mind made up, Kara pulled the sheets closer and turned aside, closing her eyes again.
"Meow."
Kara pulled the sheets closer, covering her head and pretending she hadn't heard anything.
"Meow," the soft cry came from closer up this time, from her nightstand. Kara remained immobile, she was sleeping in no matter what!
With a soft impact, she felt Dexter jumping on her waist, his tiny paws making their way up her shoulder until she could just feel the cat staring down at her face, then he meowed again.
Reluctantly cracking open an eye, Kara glared at her feline overlord. Couldn't he give her a rest?
As to be expected, defiance proved to be a mistake. Now that he knew she was awake, Dexter lifted a paw, extending his claws and slowly touching her cheek, then he did it again and again before releasing a much louder and drawn out cry.
With her resistance, his cute claws didn't hurt, but they were sharp enough to tickle her, making it almost impossible to ignore.
"Ample appreciation, Feline friend!" Kori said, floating into the room and landing a few meters from the bed with a plate in her hands. She gave the cat a nod and turned to smile at the sleepy Kryptonian. "Raise and emit light, Kara, I have done the making of breakfast!"
The sight of the incoming food immediately caused the cat to shift interest, jump down from her shoulder and start to rub his body against Kori's legs, his voice becoming weak and pitiful, perfectly calibrated to trick his foolish two-legged servants.
Kori, unfortunately for him, was made of sterner stuff than Kara, simply lowering the plate on Kara's laps, nanomachines condensing into support legs that adjusted to the bed perfectly.
The Fog really had been a convenient find.
Sitting up, Kara looked at her breakfast, pancakes with syrup, there was a cup of coffee near her… and a glass of mustard with a straw on a corner.
"Please, will you be going to the base today?" Kori said, sitting on the bed and grabbing her drink.
"No. I'll have to take Selina there tomorrow, but I think I'll just take it easy today, maybe check on the data I got from the nanomachines at the hospital, see if I can adapt anything."
"Wonderful, mayhaps you will be willing to accompany me to the mountain?" She asked, starting to suck the mustard at a prodigious rate, even releasing a small moan. "Hmm, the being we faced was not slain by your attack, yes? I do not believe you should be alone right now."
"Good point, the kids won't be much help, but there's a Zeta Tube. Red Tornado will be there and the League will probably feel better if they can verify where I am right now."
Kara knew her fight with the Injustice League would anger at least some of the heroes, and her cousin probably disapproved of how lethal she had been. She had pretty much resigned herself to their displeasure.
That didn't mean she wanted to press their buttons by disappearing after the fact and leave them wondering what she'd do next, not when there was no need and, to be honest, the Titans didn't use the mountain's underground laboratory so she didn't even have to interact with them while there.
Also, she had gotten the data from Red Volcano's damaged head, it wasn't as good as if she had gotten her hands on his geokinetic core, but perhaps she could use some of the data to improve her volcano.
"The Superman desires to speak with you, but do not worry, the League does not blame you for the damage and there was no loss of life beside the lawbreakers."
"You talked with them?"
"I contacted friend Diana earlier," Kori nodded, finishing her drink and sucking loudly on the straw until there was not a drop left.
"Thanks," her girlfriend understood her so well.
Kara sighed. She had promised Selina she'd talk with Batman, but after waking up she realized she really didn't want to, even if it would be amusing to push the cat burglar on him.
Finishing her breakfast, she got up, the metal cube on her nightstand immediately floating around her and forming into one of her cloth settings. With a command, she changed it into her Supergirl costume.
Then she grabbed Teth Adam's amulet and the draining device still filled with his electrical power, not daring to let either out of her vicinity.
A few minutes later, Kara kissed her girlfriend and used her platform to teleport directly to the only allowed location in her laboratory under the mountain, appearing inside the lava room, Dexter safely held in her arms.
Despite her admin access, the sensors still took a second to verify her identity before letting her step off of the platform and into the clear, white laboratory, the door closing behind her with a snap and leaving only the beautiful lava tank visible.
Depositing the cat on top of a table, Kara opened a can of cat food and gave him two spoons, scratching the spot between his ears as he started eating, tail raised in the air in excitement.
Opening her computers, the first thing Kara did was to connect to the computers in the Fortress of Solitude and upload Selina and Kite-Man's data to the database, ordering her cloning facilities to start growing the replacements for their contaminated organs and arm.
The process would take one and a half a day, so they'd be ready by tomorrow night.
Poison Ivy would be more complicated, but Kara sent the information to Dubbilex. Hopefully, the genomorph could tell her more about how to undo what had been done and, even if not, at least it could help with the company's research on reversing Blockbuster.
Speaking of the company, Kara noticed she had received a message from Lena Luthor. Slowly, a smile appeared on her face, it was perfect timing.
From the email, Lena had almost made up her mind, she only asked to meet the team she'd be working with before signing a contract.
Usually, Kara would have worried about Lex doing something, and that was still a possibility, but with the consecutive blows The Light had received, he'd have far less time and resources to stop his sister.
Finally, Kara got to what interested her, taking a look at the schematic data retrieved from the devices on the hospital.
Her computers took almost five minutes to separate the information from all the nanomachines but, when it was done, Kara had the code and designs for every single device her nanomachines had consumed, from Count Vertigo's namesake device to some of Ultra-Humanite's tech.
Almost immediately, she threw the information on the Joker's control gloves aside, it was disappointing. Seems like most of the flower's strength had come from Poison Ivy, Blockbuster and magic, the technology only serving to control its growth and movement.
She had to admit it WAS an interesting design, but nothing new and she could already do far better with a neural interface or visual display.
Then Kara started studying the rest of the information, accelerating her thought process so she could go over as much information as possible in a single day. She knew she should take her time, but she could barely wait to get to the interesting part.
Finally, she got to Red Volcano's head and frowned. It had been too much to hope for that the robot would die so easily.
Similar to Red Tornado and Danette, some of Red Volcano's programming had been in his head but, like both his siblings, there were at least two real time connections between the hardware housing his personality matrix and other places on his body.
Kara hadn't dared poke at the connections while inspecting Danette, but her best guess was that they were backup for the heroine's mind, one on her flame core and another to a second device on her left leg.
Seeing as most of the programming had been wiped by a safeguard when Red Volcano's head was smashed, the backups were a near certain thing. She doubted the villain would have just killed himself upon capture.
Still, there seemed to be some programs that had survived, some data about his geokinesis had remained, as well as calculations needed to use his power… perhaps this was why Red Volcano's geokinesis was stronger than his siblings' respective abilities?
More importantly, Red Volcano's scanning capabilities had been housed in his head and, while most of that information had been erased, some of the data from his incorporated Amazo tech had survived.
Kara could barely keep her excitement under control by reminding herself that she didn't have access to all the hardware. But even just the scan of Black Adam's abilities that allowed the robot to copy them was invaluable.
Leaving the best for later, Kara started on the information about his geokinesis, seeing if there was anything interesting about it. In the show, his powers were actually stronger than his siblings, which made sense since he was the latest model.
With a smile and a relaxed posture, Kara lost herself in the data, making extrapolations about how the core worked based on the Mr. Twister wind core she had already started replicating.
Yes, this data would allow her to transfer the necessary control software outside her elemental cores, perhaps in a shell of sunstone around the hardware…
The process would create a minimal but noticeable delay, at least if she was moving at full speed, but her Karabots were never capable of fighting at her level and the freed processing power in the core would increase the elemental manipulation strength by at least 18%.
It was quite a worthwhile exchange.
Ordering one of her Karabots to come closer, the Kryptonian briefly nodded at the new painting and cosmetic changes. Like most of her robots, it still lacked the same level of synthetic skin as Danette or the fake construction crew, but it could pass for a human at a distance.
Using her fingers, she pried the hatch on its belly open, then she ordered the nanomachines on her sleeve to pull back and put her entire forearm inside its body, ignoring the cold and viscous feeling of the cooling fluid as she reached for the core.
At first, her replica wind cores were installed right behind the hatch for easy access, but stress testing proved the opening, and the core behind it, were too easily damaged, resulting in the device either drawing in air until the bot was crushed or violently exploding.
Which was interesting to know, but hardly useful since the effect wasn't strong enough to make up for the material loss.
So Kara had changed the core's location to a reinforced cage deep inside its chest, behind the thicker armor plates on her Karabots. Unfortunately, it did make retrieving the device a lengthy process.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
Kara jumped back, jerking her hand out of the Karabot and denting the latch while causing it to fall forward. On the table, Dexter rose from inside the cardboard box beside his bed and hissed, his back arched and tail puffed up.
"Ahhh, Ahhh!" Kid Flash continued to scream, eyes wide and a finger pointed at the fallen Karabot.
"Calm down, it's just one of my bots, you've seen them everywhere, for Rao's sake."
"Why is she bleeding!" The boy barely managed to keep from screaming, horror on his face. "Why can I see her intestines! Why have you ripped out her HEART!"
Kara looked at the red core in her hand, only now realizing how it must look. Right, the core did ressemble a heart now that she thought about it, and the cooling fluid looked like blood too, even if it was only cosmetic.
"For physiological effect," Kara explained, releasing the core atop its prepared support and using a blast of heat vision to burn away the spilled cooling fluid. "Even villains find it much easier to smash robots if they can see the electronics inside."
Some of the villains would probably enjoy the changes, there were some sick bastards in the world, but most would find it hard to just destroy such human seeming robots. It was far harder to fight a bleeding opponent over a sparking one.
With a nod, the Karabot got up, the 'intestine' cables retreating back into its body while it attempted to fix the bent hatch with a perfectly calm face before stepping back towards the wall.
"What are you doing here anyway?"
Kid Flash continued to stare at the robot for a full five seconds before gulping, shaking his head and taking a breath. "Ah, r-right, Starfire left with Wonder Woman and she didn't think you'd want to join us for lunch, but I thought I could bring you a plate?"
Kara stared at the plate miraculously still in the sidekick's hand despite his freak out, then at the clock to the side. It was already 1 pm. It seemed like she really had lost track of time.
Now that she was aware of it, Kara's stomach took the chance to complain with a groan, the steak looking more and more appetizing by the second.
The sleeve of her costume reformed around her arm as Kara walked away from her worktable, stretching her muscles and giving Kid Flash a reassuring smile. "Thanks, I appreciate it."
"Are… are you sure you don't want to join us?" The boy asked, face flushing for a second before he stole a few glances at the Karabot and swallowed hard. "Both Connor and Megan are in the mountain, you know."
She thought about it, but eventually shook her head. She didn't want to stop working, not before taking a look at the rest of the data she had. "No, I'm kinda busy right now, but thanks for asking."
"Right, right, I guess I won't bother you then… if you need anything just say the word."
With a blur, the nervous boy ran away, leaving the plate in her hand.
Hmmmm, as much as the teenager annoyed her with his disastrous attempts at romance, he could be surprisingly thoughtful. Guess the Flash really was teaching him more than just running.
Grabbing a piece of carrot, Kara threw it in her mouth, then she laid the plate on the table and cut a slice of beef before turning back to the exposed wind core… yeah, she could test the idea later, she'd have to grow the sunstone shell another day anyway.
Cracking her fingers, she bit into the meat and finally started looking at what little of Red Volcano's scans she had access to, the data was fascinating.
Kara had taken her own scans of Billy's powers, both activated and while working passively, but it was nice to have independent confirmation and a new approach to the problem of magic.
Slowly, meticulously, she went through every single spec of information she could find in the damaged head, already starting to form new ideas about how to use it.
Before now, Kara had learned how to drain Captain Marvel's magic through electricity by studying Amber's powers, and she could destabilize magical artifacts, causing them to explode, but that had always been easy.
Now… Well, it would still take weeks of effort, study and experimentation before she could create any device that used magic as fuel, and even longer before she could replicate spells, but perhaps she could channel magic in a controllable manner?
Looking towards the still filled draining device, Kara saw it had lost a noticeable amount of charge, the storage space failing to fully contain the divine magic.
Hmmm, it was a convenient source of magic if she wanted to experiment and, since it was already leaking…
Cutting a small piece of meat, she threw it to the sneaking cat trying to steal it under the table and bit into another carrot, then started tapping on her computer.
Three hours later, she had adapted one of her security features to channel the energy contained in the device, run it through a circuit and store it back inside. Unsurprisingly, the power behaved mostly like electricity, enough that, with her modifications, she could already start making use of it.
Dialing down the intensity, Kara connected it to the safety features on the door of the laboratory and ordered one of the Karabots to test it, smiling when the electrical discharge bypassed most of the insulation to directly damage the sunstone inside.
She loved magic! A pity she couldn't exactly keep draining the amulet every day.
Well, she could, but she wouldn't feel good doing it after the way Teth had helped with Neron.
Staring at the magical artifact, Kara could see it had already regained its power. So much so that, if she took the thing and yelled 'Shazam', she was pretty sure she could transform again.
It made sense, Amber could absorb Billy's power and trick its source into believing it was still active since the gods weren't paying personal attention, but the draining device was different, it had no soul.
Now, what was she going to do with the thing? Teth had helped her but, thinking back to the encounter, she was pretty sure that if she had been foolish enough to take Neron's deal, Teth would have accepted his own deal and stolen her body.
That really felt like just the sort of trick a demon would use, give her all the information she wanted, only to immediately help another soul take over her body, making it impossible for her to use said information.
Bonus point for guaranteeing Teth would become an enemy of the Justice League and, more specifically, her cousin.
Would one of her Karabots be able to use it, allowing Teth access to a body without the need to subdue its owner's soul? More importantly, did she dare test it now?
No, no she didn't, the ancient champion was too powerful for her to risk it alone.
Ugh, she'd need to consult with Fate, she had not liked the helmet when she met it, but he was the only reliable source she more or less trusted, the other options would be Constantine and Shazam himself, neither of which she wanted to deal with.
A problem for later, now back to experimenting. Could she shoot the magically charged electricity from a cannon?
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Thanks to Eric Faust for helping out with the chapter.
If you like this story, think about reading one of my other works or giving me a tip if you have some spare change by supporting me on patr eon.com/CapCaverna or ko -fi.com/capcaverna